Althouse: Hey, how did that happen?

December 2, 2012

Hey, how did that happen?

Score!

25 comments:

Anonymous said...: Grapevine here says that the Wisconsin Badgers are in the que for the Gator Bowl here in Jacksonville. Reports say that the Badgers travel well. Not much of a football fan (basebal being just the right speed of play) but North Florida has some very lovely spots for those in the know...and with the temps averaging 65* the weather can be perfect.; 12/2/12, 8:33 AM
LarryK said...: An amazing game, right from the start...the first four minutes were unlike anything I've ever seen before.; 12/2/12, 8:39 AM
Curious George said...: Surfed, that may have been true if they lost last night. But they won, so off to the Rose Bowl.; 12/2/12, 8:40 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: I like college football.

But, the facade of amateurism has broken down completely.

The Big 10 is moving toward becoming a 16 team super-conference, and it is doing so to make money. Coaches in the Big 10 make millions, and the players don't get paid a salary.

Even the coach of my lowly, and perpetually downtrodden Illini, makes about $1.6 million, and he'll never finish in the top half of his division. You could just as easily pay somebody $50,000 to lose every Big Ten game, which the Illini did this year, and will probably do again next year.

The vast majority of football players are coasting through college on makework courses. They aren't really students.

This stuff has become unseemly.; 12/2/12, 8:48 AM
Anonymous said...: @Curious George - Like I said I don't pay much attention to football. Always a day or so behind the games and their import. North Florida however is WAY nicer than Los Angles if not as prestigious a Bowl.; 12/2/12, 8:51 AM
Tim said...: Surfed said...

"Grapevine here says that the Wisconsin Badgers are in the que for the Gator Bowl here in Jacksonville. Reports say that the Badgers travel well. Not much of a football fan (basebal being just the right speed of play) but North Florida has some very lovely spots for those in the know...and with the temps averaging 65* the weather can be perfect."

The Badgers will lose to Stanford in the Rose Bowl.; 12/2/12, 8:52 AM
ALH said...: Stanford reminds me of the Badgers. Unfortunately, the remind me of last year's Badgers - i.e. they are much better than this year's team.; 12/2/12, 9:00 AM
kjbe said...: Holy Blowout, Batman. The Badgers seemed to have found a remedy for losing close games. Did not see that coming...; 12/2/12, 9:02 AM
virgil xenophon said...: Football is almost unique of all sports insofar as season records often aren't an accurate measure of the skill-level of a team. Both bad officiating and bad bounces/breaks affect the sport disproportionately, as well as injuries to key players. Combine all this with the fact that it is a complicated team sport that often takes a young, even if superior-talented team, an entire season to reach peak performance. Wisc reminds me of my senior year in fall. 1965 at LSU when my Tigers were but 7-3 (only 10 games in those years) and were placed opposite an undefeated Arkansas team on a 22 game winning streak and defending its national championship in the '66 Cotton Bowl. The Tigers had lost badly at home to Alabama and on the road early 14-7 to Florida & late in season 0-23 to Ole Miss, but actually had superior personnel across-the-board to all three teams. They proved it by handling Arkansas 14-7 in the Cotton Bowl and snapping the nations longest winning streak..

This may be the Badgers time..; 12/2/12, 9:08 AM
AllenS said...: Having Borland back was a big plus. Also, the offensive line was executing their assigned blocking assignments perfectly. Turnovers were a plus for Bucky, and some very good play calling helped. Some of the Badgers offensive plays looked like old Apache tricks.; 12/2/12, 9:11 AM
AllenS said...: assigned blocking assignments

Double emphasis.; 12/2/12, 9:15 AM
Tim said...: "This may be the Badgers time.."

Possibly.

Stanford's only head-scratching loss was to the Huskies, in Washington.

Their loss to Notre Dame, in South Bend, was, to say the least, quite controversial.

So, but for one inexplicable, sub-par performance and one bad call, Stanford could be undefeated.

And yes, one could argue Stanford benefited from other breaks, but beating Oregon on the road is one hell of an accomplishment, which suggests this team is very clearly among the very best teams in the nation.; 12/2/12, 9:17 AM
Sam L. said...: Nebraska's been a powerhouse for years.; 12/2/12, 9:32 AM
LoafingOaf said...: I wasn't surprised by Wisconsin blowing out Nebraska. The first time Wisconsin played them they were on their way to a blow out in Nebraska's own stadium until they let Nebraska back in the game and couldn't get the momentum back. Then I saw my Buckeyes humiliate Nebraska, scoring over 60 points on them. Then I saw Wisconsin take my Buckeyes to overtime, and their defense had dominated for most of the game, especially in stopping Braxton Miller's rushing game.

I felt the Buckeyes (the best team in the Big Ten) were lucky to get out of Madison with a win.

You also had a situation where the Badgers had something to prove. In addition to feeling they let their last game against Nebraska slip away, people said they didn't belong in the conference title game. So, they ran up the score.

I just hope they represent the Big Ten well in the Rose Bowl. The Big Ten's gotta stop losing bowl games.; 12/2/12, 9:59 AM
ndspinelli said...: It's teams fighting for a title in a Third World conference. "Much ado about nothing."

I'm speaking about Big 10 football. They're legit in basketball.; 12/2/12, 10:08 AM
Calypso Facto said...: Yeah, Stanford looks to be the better team and the Badgers haven't fared well against the Pac 10 recently, so not much for expectations. But if that team that played yesterday shows up again, look out!; 12/2/12, 10:10 AM
ndspinelli said...: AllenS, You did make a good point about the innovation used by Wi. In a league w/ no imagination, it results in 70 points.; 12/2/12, 10:18 AM
Big Mike said...: I wonder if going to the Rose Bowl means as much to Nebraska as it does to one of the original Big Ten teams.

I admit that I turned off the game after watching Martinez run for a touchdown on what would have been a 15 yard sack for most quarterbacks, thinking that the game was effectively over. Oops, as they say.

Later I was channel-surfing and I couldn't believe the score. Wisconsin scored 10 touchdowns! Congratulations to the Badgers.; 12/2/12, 10:21 AM
LoafingOaf said...: Even the coach of my lowly, and perpetually downtrodden Illini, makes about $1.6 million, and he'll never finish in the top half of his division. You could just as easily pay somebody $50,000 to lose every Big Ten game, which the Illini did this year, and will probably do again next year.

Ilinois seems to have made a bad hire at head coach. But the Illini have gone to two BCS bowls and have one Big Ten title since the start of the century, and they have all the resources Wisconsin has. If Northern Illinois in the MAC, with very little money, can build a good football program, there's no reason the Illini have to be forever stuck in the basement of the Big Ten.

I'm an Ohio State Buckeyes fan and most of the players on my team are homegrown talent. Also, Ohio's coaches are usually homegrown talent as well. Ohio produces a who's-who of the greatest football coaching minds, so we deserve to be coached by people like Paul Brown, Woody Hayes, Jim Tressel, Urban Meyer. So, there's nothing unfair about my team being so strong in the conference. The Buckeyes are committed to keeping up with the SEC, and it's up to the other programs in the Big Ten if they wanna keep up with us. :)

I don't get why schools like Illinois and Minnesota can't be as good as Wisconsin. It's their own fault, and it can be fixed.; 12/2/12, 10:33 AM
HT said...: There is something so ... bizarre about the Wisconsin football program, at least the way it arrives to my eyeballs here in the mid Atlantic. The stadium seems like a stadium I might dream of. There's something awkward about it. (They weren't playing in Neb were they? If so, muy humiliating)

And then the score, more surreality.

I just don't know what else to say. The whole shebang is off kilter somehow, and I cannot say how.

Meanwhile, Roll Tide.; 12/2/12, 10:42 AM
southcentralpa said...: Well, just as long as the UW AD's office remembers to send thank-you notes to the NCAA for leap-frogging them over the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions to get to the game ...; 12/2/12, 10:44 AM
ndspinelli said...: southcentraalpa, Thank you notes should go to Jim Tressel and JoePa's son.; 12/2/12, 10:54 AM
LoafingOaf said...: (They weren't playing in Neb were they? If so, muy humiliating)

The Big Ten title game was played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. If it had been played in Madison (one of the toughest stadiums for a visiting team) the Badgers may have scored 100!; 12/2/12, 11:01 AM
ndspinelli said...: leslyn you're correct. Minnesota kids have nightmares about coaches having epileptic seizures. Iliinois kids remember their new coach calling their beloved state, "Illinoiz" when introduced @ his first press conference.; 12/2/12, 12:08 PM
Dave D said...: So can someone explaint o me how my MSU Spartans managed to beat Wisky at their place? You guys sure are a schizo team!; 12/2/12, 11:26 PM